Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Biomass is Not "Carbon Neutral"

The biomass-is-carbon-neutral story line put forward in the early 1990’s has been superseded by more recent science that recognizes that mature, intact forests sequester carbon more effectively than cut-over areas. When a tree’s carbon is released into the atmosphere in a single pulse, (the Greenfield burner plans to burn a ton of damp, green wood chips each minute) it contributes to climate change much more than woodland timber rotting slowly over decades.